Sweaters and Snapple Caps...

In the spirit of being "green", inspired by the book of the week "CraftCycle", my project for the week will utilize shrunken wool sweaters and Snapple caps, along with some other materials. They are a "work in progress" and you'll have to check back to see what I'm making!

Finding creative solutions is something that I really love to do. I wouldn't call either of my parents "artists" but I frequently saw both of them work out ways to accomplish things in unusual ways. I remember one time, on a family camping trip, the games were in the car and it was raining buckets. Instead of sending my father to the car in the rain, my mother made a checkerboard out of a paper bag and we used coins for checkers. Many years later, I was on a walk in the woods with my granddaughter, Britney. She got tired and we stopped to rest. I looked around and found some twigs and some black stones & white stones. We laid the sticks out in a grid and played tic-tac-toe with twigs and stones. I have Mom to thank for thinking that one up!

Several years ago I attended "Doll University", a fabulous Art Doll conference in California. One of the 'events' of the weekend was a Doll Hat Parade where everyone was to make a doll-based hat and wear it to the evening banquet. Well, I was flying from New York and with all the other supplies I was bringing, I didn't have room for a silly hat. Once I got there, however, I got caught up in the spirit of the weekend and was sorry that I didn't have a hat with me. I decided I was going to find a way to make a hat - the biggest challenge was what to use for a base? In my supply stash I had a couple aluminum pie plates I was going to use for paint. I did a little bending & folding and came up with the base. I covered that with doll stuffing and a layer of fabric. With the addition of some trim, a bow, and a large doll pin at the back, I had my hat! I didn't win any prizes but it was fun to be part of the silliness. It's not easy to get a good photo, but here it is (the dolls face is hidden under the hair from this angle). I call it my "Pie Plate Hat".

We are doing some renovations in our garage and I'm carving out part of the space for a workbench that I can use for "found object" art projects. I've been collecting all kinds of crazy things for a while now. I'm looking forward to having good space for working with my "stash".

Until then, I'll be satisfied making my project of the week out of shrunken sweaters & snapple caps. Check back in a couple of days to see what I've made!